Interesting electoral tussle in Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in Odisha
NEW DELHI: Odisha is all set for the seventh and final phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2024 as the last phase covers a significant portion of the coastal state. The polling on June 1 will encompass Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur parliamentary constituencies across the state.
The state has 21 Lok Sabha seats and in the 2019 general elections, the BJP had won eight seats while the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) had bagged 12 seats. In 2014, the BJD had won 20 seats and BJP managed just one.
Odisha is also witnessing elections to 147 Assembly constituencies simultaneously. As many as 42 Assembly seats that go to polls in the last phase are likely to witness close electoral contests. The poll process in Odisha is spread over four phases between May 13 and June 1.
The BJD formed its government for a historic fifth straight term after the 2019 Assembly polls as the party managed to negate the sweeping Modi wave and retained power. Of 147 Assembly seats, the BJP was able to win only 22 in the 2019 polls.
Since the last general and Assembly polls in Odisha, the BJP has been trying to project itself as the growing alternative party, promising the people that it will be able to govern the resource-rich coastal state in a much better and efficient manner.
This time around the BJD is expressing confidence of increasing its parliamentary seat count while the BJP is fighting a tough battle to improve its electoral performance. The Congress too is hoping to better its seat count from Odisha.
The BJD is focussing its campaign on the development that its rule has brought in the state and banking on the clean image of the party supremo and chief minister Naveen Patnaik.
After BJP’s prolonged seat-sharing talks for forging an alliance with the BJD resulted in a fruitless exercise, both the BJP and the BJD decided to go their own separate ways in Odisha. At that time Prime Minister Narendra Modi had heaped praise on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, describing him in glowing terms for his developmental work in the state.
After the break-up, the BJP hopes to increase its footprint in the state as it feels that anti-incumbency sentiments against the long rule of the BJD may go against the party. The BJP has also played the card of increasing bureaucratic influence at the policy level in the Naveen Patnaik government that borders on interference in political matters as well.
Naveen’s father, Biju Patnaik, had criticised the BJP and its leaders for vilifying secularism as ``pseudo-secularism.’’ He had described the BJP’s Odisha unit as a party based on advertisements -- `vigyapan party.’ In this election campaign, the BJP is hugely banking upon PM Modi as the party’s most popular leader, vote-catcher, and star campaigner. PM Modi is clearly the most visible face in all the poll advertisements put out by the BJP.
It was Biju Patnaik’s vision of upholding pluralism and secular principles in Odisha that laid the foundation of the BJD. But the track record of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik shows that the BJD in the post-Biju Patnaik period formed a coalition government in Odisha with the BJP in 2000 and snapped the ties in 2009 after the communal riots that rocked Kandhamal in 2009.
However, the BJD has been supporting the BJP in all key legislations in Parliament with hardly any critical stand taken against the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre. In a way, Naveen Patnaik ensured immunity from the actions of the BJP government which may have targeted him.
For the BJP, the 2024 Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in Odisha present an opportunity to gain a foothold in the state. Predictably, the BJP’s way was shown by Union Home Minister Amit Shah who addressed a public meeting in Odisha’s Chandbali on Tuesday and attacked the chief minister and his close aide V K Pandian and raked up the issue of ‘Odia Asmita’.
The Home Minister targeted V K Pandian, bureaucrat-turned-politician, who hails from Tamil Nadu and projects himself as a political successor to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Odiya academicians and analysts say that resentment against Pandian, a confidant of the chief minister, in Odisha, has increased in the recent past. The IAS officer of the 2000 batch resigned from service and joined the BJD last year. It is generally perceived that he is touting himself to take on the mantle of the political successor of Patnaik and is at the centre of a raging debate between the ruling dispensation and the opposition.
With Pandian as a peg, BJP has cleverly anchored its poll narrative of Odiya vs non-Odiya. BJP leaders have harped upon identity politics in Odisha and linked it to Odiya and pride. Party leaders feel that common people do not identify with Pandian and see his elevation as a threat to Odiya’s pride and ethnicity.
In an interview, PM Modi also referred to the ‘asmita’ being in danger and said that Odia people would not tolerate it for long.
On the other hand, the BJD has blamed the BJP for politicising an internal party decision and carrying out a witch hunt against Pandian.
The bureaucratic interference in Odisha came into focus when the BJP last month accused senior IPS officer D S Kutey of working for the BJD by staying at the Chief Minister’s Office. The Election Commission ordered the immediate suspension of Mr Kutey, a 1997 batch IPS who is Special Secretary to CM, for unduly interfering in the conduct of the election and asked another IPS officer Ashish Singh to present himself for detailed medical examination by a special medical board over similar allegations. The BJP had demanded action against Ashish Singh that he was unduly influencing the election even after being transferred from the post of IG Central range.
Early this month, the Election Commission ordered the transfer of senior Odisha bureaucrat Sujata R Karthikeyan, wife of BJD leader V K Pandian, from the department of Mission Shakti, Odisha to a non-public dealing department after complaints of misuse of public office.
